Essential Nutrition

Friday Favourites - Sweeteners

Calorie-counting has become a routine for most of us; however we can still be unaware of the damaging effect of high sugar intake. Here at The Amazing Blog, we want to provide a healthy alternative to sweeten your morning coffee. With our favourite sweeteners, you can treat yourself guilt-free.

Firstly, we found an innovative new range of fruity Fine Powders by LOOV, designed to liven up anything from smoothies, baked goods, and even plain yoghurt. The powders are sourced using organic berries giving a fruity taste.

 

The three delicious flavours include Lingonberry, Cranberry and Blueberry; our favourite had to be the Lingonberry for its potent scent and intense ruby colour. We love that LOOV source their berries from local organic farmers in Estonia, making the product guilt-free in more ways than one. Get your hands on your own berry powders here for £13.50.

If berries aren't your thing, we have the perfect syrup substitute. BeLoved have utilised one of our favourite natural sweet treats to produce Date Nectar. The nectar is expertly extracted to retain all of the yummy goodness from the whole fruit.

We found it to be such a versatile product, perfect as a sweetener in hot drinks, drizzled over pancakes, or for an alternative sticky ‘date’ pudding. Dates are an ancient superfood packed with fibre and minerals. What makes them particularly special in our book is that they actually boost metabolism. A sweetener that turns sugars into energy rather than fat - we’re sold. Go try it and get yours here for only £3.99.

This next product will curb those sweet cravings for good. With only 3g of natural sugar per teaspoon, The Groovy Food Company’s Agave Express Sticks are astounding.

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Agave nectar is incredibly sweet, without any artificial additives or refined sugars, so a little goes a very long way. The Agave Express Sticks are the definition of ‘what it says on the tin’, made from 100% organic Agave nectar and so convenient for on-the-go. We thought the 5ml sachets were great to sweeten tea & coffee and add some excitement to our morning porridge. Sweeten up your diet with a natural substitute by getting your Agave sticks here for £2.99.  

We were particularly excited about receiving The Coconut Company’s Organic Coconut Sugar, a fantastic alternative to the regular refined kind.

It’s formed by gently heating coconut sap from the coconut flower blossom. Although this sounds very technical, the result is a beautifully sweet and fragrant brown sugar. What’s more, the sugar retains the vitamins and minerals from the coconut blossom, as well as having a low GI. In other words, you won’t experience that turbulent sugar high or crash. We loved the unique taste and intense sweetness and it was fantastic to use when baking.  If you want the great taste of sugar but want to avoid those awful blood sugar spikes, get your Coconut Sugar here for £4.99

Lastly, we wanted to find a truly multipurpose and versatile sweetener that could be used in anything. Essential Nutrition’s Sweetlift Cook is the sugar free, natural answer to our prayers.

This table-top sweetener is extracted from totally natural sources yet has twice the power of regular sugar and is less calorific. We were excited to use this in all aspects of our cooking; it worked particularly well in baking and to sweeten our morning cuppa. There was no artificial or bitter aftertaste, it provided texture, volume and caramelisation just as sugar would. Essential Nutrition have outdone themselves with this fantastic and almost undetectable substitute. Introduce Sweetlift Cook into your kitchen, order yours here for €14.90.

Friday Favourites - Sweet Treats

The weekend is nearly upon us and so is the urge to indulge, and here at The Amazing Blog we know just how!

For something wickedly moorish pick up a packet of Ultimate English fudge which champions local produce in the Yorkshire region.

Using rhubarb grown in the heart of the rhubarb triangle itself by celebrated farmer D Westwood & Sons, the companies’ new rhubarb coconut ice gives a nostalgic nod towards the childhood-cherished rhubarb crumble.

If you fancy something more traditional check out their All Butter Fudge or the Salt Water Chocolate Truffle Fudge which combines the finest all butter fudge with the highest quality Belgian chocolate which recently was awarded a gold star in the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards.

You can purchase Ultimate English fudge via retailers across the UK. You can find your nearest stockist here.

If you’re after a slightly healthier option then look no further as Chocolift is a lactose free, no added sugar chocolate with sweeteners extracted from plants, 38% pure cocoa, 8.2g whey protein isolate and 2g of coconut oil. The blend of cocoa, whey protein and coconut oil is a great alternative for chocolate lovers on sugar and lactose controlled diets, and at only 89 calories per half a bar we think it’s a great diet friendly option.

You can buy an 8 pack of Chocolift bars for £28.65 here.

Here at The Amazing Blog we also love Sweet Virtues’ award winning luxury truffles, which are nutrient-dense and power-packed with more than five super food ingredients in every truffle. The raw centre is made up of a blend of Maca, Lucuma, Coconut Nectar, Carob, Ginseng, Sunflower Seeds and Ground Almonds mixed with 72% Organic raw dark chocolate with Bio Live Cultures. Each truffle is hand-made and is dairy-free, suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those on gluten-free diets.

Available in three delicious varieties, Maqui, Chia Seeds & Lime and Baobab & Vanilla, the truffles come in boxes of around 10 (£13.95 for 115g), or a two truffle ballotin box (selection pack containing one ballotin box of each variety for £7.50). Both are perfect as a unique and luxurious gift or the ultimate guilt-free treat for oneself.

The Sweet Virtues range is currently available with a number of retailers, including Harrods, Daylesford, Planet Organic and Partridges of London, or from the company’s website.

Last but not least, we all know that chocolate makes you feel good, and Lovechock does just that! Made by hand from the best organic, raw cacao from Ecuador, instead of being roasted the beans are cold grounded, providing a natural source of flavonoids and ‘love chemicals’-  goodies that make you feel happy and loving.

Lovechock is milk free, soy free and gluten free and is sweetened with Coconut blossom nectar, which has a low GI value and therefore keeps the blood sugar levels more stable than common sugars. All Lovechock products are 100% vegan (recognized by the Vegan Society) and come in a variety of flavours including Goji/Orange, Almond/Fig and Mulberry/Vanilla.

We’re also loving Lovechock Rocks which are a great snack for when you’re on the go. The rocks are fruits or nuts covered in raw chocolate and a pinch of reishi, and come in three different flavour combinations Mulberry/Hemp seed, Almond/Cinnamon and Raisin Coconut.

You can buy Lovechock products from Planet Organic, Real Foods and The HealthBay.